Training Log Archive: PG

Event: WCOC Five Ponds meet
 

WCOC local meet at Five Ponds in Litchfield. An inch or two of fresh snow, snowing lightly, about 30F. Guess it was cold enough that my brain didn't wake up for a while.

Executive summary -- lost my map twice, lost my hat about 5 times before I gave up and stuffed it in my pants, lost my contact lens once, lost my way a couple of times, felt old and slow, and my butt hurt the whole time. On the plus side, had a good laugh when I finished and Jim Handerson asked, with some feigned concern, if a certain part of me had stayed warm enough (see yesterday's entry). It had. So on balance a fine day.

My routes.

Obviously I shouldn't have gone, but since it may be quite a while before I get to go orienteering again, and there will be plenty of time to rest my aching butt, I figured why not. Had a nice drive down with Phil, and a long discussion about the finances of the UMass philosophy department in this age of sudden budget cuts made the time go quickly. Got my stuff together and jogged over to the start and got going right away, didn't want to stand around and get cold.

1. I had my spikes on so I felt confident regarding the footing in the snow, but within 50 meters in the woods I had already crashed badly, really hard, bloodied my right shin. I think I was more careful after that.
2. Was lost pretty quickly, not really badly lost but didn't know quite where I was. Turned out I was in the dark green, just a bunch of saplings. Got through that, over to the area of the control, saw it, took a look at my map to see which way to #3, except I didn't have my map. Seriously. Looked behind me, spotting the map on the snow was no trivial matter, and it was nowhere in sight. Headed back, trying to remember exactly how I'd come. A couple of other people had been in the same area, and at one point I was checking the footprints to see if they were mine (i.e. if both feet pointed right). After a bit found the map back about 50-60 meters back. Feeling stupid? Oh, yeah.
3. No problems!
4. Moving nicely, over to the area of the control, didn't see it, looked up the hill a little, then back down, then saw it a little farther from the stream than I expected.
5. No problems.
6. Lost my hat for 3rd/4th/5th(?) time, decided I'd had enough of that and tucked it in my pants. Lost my map for the second time, but this time only got about 20 meters. Did spike the control.
7. Took a while to get out to the main trail, then past the start and an inefficient route to the control (should have turned in sooner). By this point I was feeling rather negative about my run so far.
8. So just to make things worse, I caught a branch in my right eye (the one I wear a contact in for distance vision), it hit pretty hard, hurt. Looked off in the distance to see if I could still see, and things looked blurry. Not good. Looked at the map and things looked sharp. Also not good. The contact was clearly gone, and the impact had been sharp enough that I was pretty sure the contact hadn't just been pushed off-center. Hmmm. Time to go in? And then while I was looking at the map I saw a little imperfection on the map case, and I looked a little closer and it was my contact, folded in half and just stuck there. So I took off a glove and peeled off the contact and after a bit got it unfolded and then put it in the usual position at the end of the index finger and then, there being no mirror handy, just aimed for my eye. Didn't work, the lens ended up wrapped around the end of my finger. Tried a second time. Tried a third time. Tried a fourth time. Tried a fifth time. Tried a sixth time. Then I did a better job of wiping the sweat off the area around my eye so I could really pull the eye open. Tried a seventh time and, son of a bitch, it went in. I blinked a couple of times, looked up, and I could see. And I figured, might as well keep going.
9-F. Spiked them all, just moving pretty slowly, partly being tired, partly the sore butt. But glad to finish.

Got changed and warmed up. Then Phil came in. He hopped in the car and we headed over to my mom's, about 5 minutes away, a quick visit for me, a hot shower for him. And then off, a stop in Torrington for coffee and bagels (me) or a huge cinnamon roll (him), and then a long talk about families on the way home.

As I said, on balance a fine day. Thanks George and Lyn for making it possible.

Red course - Splits

Went into Amherst. The movie house was having a sale, 20 tickets for $100 (regular price is $8.50), good both there and Northampton, seemed like worthwhile thing to do and seemed even more worthwhile if I rode my bike. Though I discovered that the Amherst roads still suck, holes all over the place. 31:45 in (a little uphill, into just a slight breeze), 28:15 back. Route.

A PR I think, temperature-wise, 32F, but almost no wind and pretty flat (you don't really want a long downhill). Counted up afterwards and I had 17 pieces of clothing on -- helmet (sort of clothing), hat, 4 shirts, 4 gloves, shorts, 2 tights, 2 socks, 2 shoes. Mostly warm enough, fingers and toes were a little chilly by the end, not bad, though in another 30 minutes it might have gotten a little painful.

And of course I hadn't procured any wind-resistant shorts since my last ride, so I was getting a little chilly down there too. Not chilly enough to cause any concern or real discomfort, but chilly enough to send my mind flipping back some 30 years to a XC ski race in southern Vermont in the late '70s.

I think I must have gone up there with my old rogaine and ultrarunning partner, Fred, as he had an eye for off-beat events. Which this certainly was. Started at an inn pretty close to the base of Haystack Ski Area, over to the bottom of the slopes and then right up, all the way to the top, seemed pretty steep all the way. From there headed north along the rolling and slightly uphill ridge trail connecting Haystack and Mt. Snow, another ski area. At that point you were perhaps 1800' higher than the start/finish, time to get it back in a hurry. Right down one of the downhill trails (still on XC skis), really moving now even if somewhat out of control (I could always go downhill fast, the uphills were the problem), I don't know, 30-40 mph is just a guess, all the way down to near the bottom of Mt. Snow, and back along a trail to the finish, the last trail also steadily downhill. So for the last maybe 10-15 minutes there was a significant self-created headwind and you were doing no work at all to generate any warmth. Oh, and it was a bitter cold day to start with.

Finished, Fred finished a little after me, we went inside, had something warm to drink, all was right with the world, and then at almost the same moment our dicks started to thaw out. And we were both in some serious agony for what seemed like forever but probably was about 10-15 minutes. It certainly made enough of an impression that over the years I never let myself get in that situation again.

So on today's ride I was dreaming up various plan B's, from stuffing my glove liners in my shorts for extra insulation to stopping at every cafe or restaurant along the way. None of it necessary as it turned out, and the reminiscences made part of the ride go by a whole lot quicker.

C • Frozen Dick 9

And another PT visit, this one with Joan, who was awesome. Meaning, she took whatever body part of hers seemed suited best, usually an elbow or a thumb, and delivered it to the various parts of my butt that seemed most tender. And just held it there until the pain slowly mellowed out a bit. And then moved just a little and repeated. And all the while seeming very pleased with how she was doing. And I was trying hard not to scream loud enough to be heard elsewhere, though loud enough that she certainly knew how I was feeling.

You will probably feel worse for a day or two, she said. And then hopefully better.

I like someone with a positive attitude, someone who enjoys her work. And she certainly seemed to be enjoying herself.

I thought about trying to recruit her to come orienteering, but that thought passed quickly, when she started to work on the wrong leg. It's the left one, I said. She took a quick look back at my folder, then, Well, I've always had a problem with right and left.

South Sugarloaf, up the trail (9:28), working up a sweat, then down the road (13:10). Just getting dark, nice sunset.

Up the road up South Sugarloaf and back just before bedtime. Beautiful. 15:18 up, 13:37 down.



I'd noticed the moon setting the night before and checked and saw it would set a little later tonight, about 10:30, and the sky was clearing and it was pretty mild, 35, and I thought, why not? A nice energetic stroll up, although when I started there was a bit of nervousness, I think it just always happens when I first head off in the dark. After the rogaine in Virginia, where they had allowed solo teams, I've been thinking what that would be like, out all night by yourself, somewhat interested in trying, and then here I was starting up a paved road and feeling insecure. Do I really want to do a solo rogaine?

Just one surprise, approaching the top there was a light, first quite small, then growing just a little larger, but not bobbing like someone walking. And then close enough to see it was a guy on a bike starting down, had a good sized pack on his back. Wished I'd gotten up there a couple minutes earlier to chat him up.

As it was, I got there just as the moon was about to set. It was not quite halfway lit up, bright orange, pretty cool. Not that it was the only light source, not just the lights from the nearby towns, also the lights from the springfield area reflected off a few remaining clouds.

As it happened, I'd just started another book, Thirteen Moons, and the protagonist is heading off into the mid-Appalachian wilderness sometime in the early 19th century and it got me thinking what it would have been like standing on the top of Sugarloaf back then, or even back before the Europeans came. How different it would have been (the least of which being no road that I had just walked up). So I stayed a few minutes, soaked it all in, then headed down. And decided to leave the headlamp off. And that was fine, all the way down, must be all the blueberries I've been eating. It was darker partway down by the hairpin bend, more trees blocking the far away lights, and I happened to look up and the stars had really gotten brighter. And then before long down and home.

And then I went and looked up a chart of the time the moon rises and sets, and clearly there are things going on that I don't understand. The moon rises later every day, that's ok, but the amount later ranges from about 30 minutes to about 75 minutes. I'm sure there is a reason other than the one that strikes me as most likely -- the folks at the naval observatory have a bug in their computer program -- and I guess I will have to do a little research to satisfy my curiosity.

C • Solo at night 2

C • inclination and latitude 10

Fewer reps, more weight. Just because. And skipped a couple of machines (leg press and hip abductor, I think that's the one, where you push out with your legs) because Kara said to.

Was preceded by a visit to the PT operation which conveniently is located in the same building as the gym, all under the same ownership. As expected, seems I have a sore top of the left hamstring and very sore left piriformis muscle (what I call my butt) or something in that area, maybe an inflamed bursa, who knows.

The couple of times I been to these folks in the past I seem to have had some positive results, which I attributed to ultrasound/laser treatment, though there is no way of really knowing. So I was a little surprised, and chagrined, to find out that that option was out the window because of my prostate issue -- getting the cells in the piriformis all jumping around also has the possibility of getting any cancer cells all jumping around, and that might not be a good thing.

So then, after the evaluation and some discussion, there was a session of elbow treatment by the aforementioned Kara, meaning her elbow was applied to my butt with a reasonable amount of force. In different places, from different angles, all held long enough to give things a chance to relax a little. Which they sometimes did. Though the couple of really sore places just seemed to keep hurting.

And then the standard advice, several stretching exercises (and how and how often to do them), along with a schedule for icing and for vitamin I. The thing is, this is nothing new, but sometimes if someone else tells you, then the odds of actually following the regimen are higher. We will see.

Old Deerfield - River Road loop. About 40 degrees, breeze out of the south.

Figured it would probably be the last bike ride for the year so bundled up and went at it. Pretty nice. Only complaint would be the bright sunshine, not usually something I complain about, but with the sun so low in the sky this time of year it made it harder to see at times, obviously when going into it, also when it was behind me and I wanted to use my mirror. Just felt a little more vulnerable than usual much of the time.

Leg energy wasn't too bad, but left hip was bothering me, not bad, but more often than I wished saying, Hello, don't forget about me. Not sure if Kara would have approved of the ride, but I made a point of not asking.

Some sweat, some deep breathing, a little lactic acid on the few hills. A joy to be out.

So I finished Peace Like A River, really liked it except for the ending which seemed a little off. But I really enjoyed the writing, just the flow of the text. At some point I thought I should be marking the text up with a highlighter, there were a lot of lines I would have liked to remember. No big ideas, not many long words, just fun to read.

Out to the movies night, got Gail to come too, Rachel Getting Married. Had my doubts at the last minute, almost backed out of going -- there's even more reason to be doubtful when you've talked someone else into going -- but we were both pleasantly surprised.

Nice to have the Amherst Cinema nearby, they also own the Pleasant Street Theater in Northampton, though I went a long time seeing almost no movies, perhaps scared away by sitting through all three parts of the Lord of the Rings, which I thought were increasingly dreadful. But there seem to be a lot of movies around that are made with much more modest budgets and are much more interesting -- are those two connected? -- at least to someone well past the teen years.

Substitute instructor, much more mellow.

And a trip down to Mt. Tom (the immediate vicinity) for 9 holes of rogaine practice. I never used to think of playing in this weather (low 40s), but with a little more clothing it was very pleasant. Didn't have the place to myself, but almost.

C • Box of chocolates 4

Went for a short and slowish run on Poet's Seat ridge. Figured it was a reasonably safe place -- this is the first day of shotgun season (for deer), though I haven't heard a single shot all day -- as I've never seen a hunter there, nor a deer, plus I had on my fine bright orange shirt from the Traverse. No signs of any hunters, just a couple of walkers and one other runner.

The run itself? Trying to be as gentle as possible. Felt ok to start, then quickly a little sore but not too bad. Nice afternoon, just had to get out.

C • Orange shirt!? 1

Good energetic workout.